Mailing machines generally comprise a postage meter for printing an indicia on a piece of mail or on a tape and a feed base for transporting mailpieces or tapes for printing by the postage meter. In many cases for reasons of cost and typically because of lighter volume of mail, automatic mailpiece feeders have not been used in connection with small mailing machines.
One type of mailing machine produced by Pitney Bowes, which is described, for example, in Ser. No. 180,163 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,392,704, for Mailing Machine, Ser. No. 180,161, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,392,703, and Ser. No. 180,168 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,390,594, for Tape Feeding, Cutting and Ejecting Apparatus for a Mailing Machine all filed Jan. 11, 1994, and assigned to the assignee of the instant application, was originally designed for the hand feeding of mail by an operator.
If it is desired that an automatic mail-feeding apparatus be used in combination with this mailing machine, it was found necessary to be able to convert such mailing machines for automatic mail feeding. The length of the deck and the lack of positive feeding make the interface of these mailing machines to the feeder less than straightforward.